High-speed chases in this town are a dime a dozen. High-speed chases led by women with as much panache and style as petite 22-year-old Ta Chyna Shuntrell Watson are another thing altogether.

On the night of June 1, Watson was alleged by West University Police to have failed to use her turn signal in the 5700 block of College, a block or so south of Bissonnet. (Watson shouldn't feel too bad -- people with names like "Ta Chyna Shuntrell" have been pulled over by West U cops on far flimsier pretexts.) Watson refused to pull over and the chase was on.

Before it ended without incident in an industrial nether zone on Market Street in Jacinto City 20 miles away, Watson and her pursuers -- which eventually grew to include Bellaire and Houston cops -- reached speeds of over 100 mph. Ho hum: that's fairly typical H-Town car chase fare.

But that's just where Watson starts to prove herself the Diva of High-Speed Police Chases.

Watson is said to have hurled a whiskey bottle out of her Mercury Milan on the Loop and to have calmly smoked "at least two cigarettes." Police also say she fastidiously signaled every lane change throughout the entire stampede. And when she finally pulled over, she taught the cops a thing or two about how to arrest a lady.

According to West University Police spokesman Lt. Charlie Deily, Watson "was very particular about how she got down on the ground because she did not want to get dirty, but followed instructions."

After her arrest, Watson expressed words to the effect that her chase had been initiated because she had been driving while black in West U. Watson, who is now out on $10,000 bond, has no adult criminal record in Harris County, save for the charge of evading arrest / detention that resulted from this incident.